A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to visit a small part of Nepal, in particular the route from Lukla (2,840 m - 9,318 ft) to the Everest base camp (5,364 m - 17,598 ft), going up first to Kala Patthar (5,545 m - 18,192 ft), from where the views of Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse are spectacular.
In the weeks before my trip, during its planning, I spent some time with Google Earth and Google Maps having a look to the areas we were going to walk. I imagined, almost inadvertently, how could be the people we would cross, or the landscapes of the valleys we would trek. Looking at these maps, I was quite surprised and a bit disappointed because from the initial part of the route to about half of the way, the satellite pictures still don't have a great definition, given the number of people who follow this route every year. That is why it was very complicated to plot on a satellite map, the route we were going to do. So I was a bit frustrated...
Now that I'm back and I know the route well, I decided to create a map on Google Maps so that future travelers don't come with the same problem, or for those curious who would like to know which is the most typical route to the Everest base camp (Nepali side), having 2 weeks of vacation. I say specifically 2 weeks of vacation because if I would have had 3, my route would have changed a bit, so instead of going up and down by basically the same path (up by Pheriche and down by Dingboche), my return would have been done via Gokyo or rather the Gokyo Ri (5,360 m - 17,585 ft) from where the views are amazing, as in addition to the Nuptse (7,861 m - 25,791 ft) you can see four eight-thousands peaks: Everest (8,848 m - 29,029 ft), Lhotse (8,516 m - 27,940 ft), Makalu (8,462 m - 27,762 ft) and Cho Oyu (8,201 m - 26,906 ft).
Well, so this is the normal ascent route from Lukla to the Everest base camp:
In the weeks before my trip, during its planning, I spent some time with Google Earth and Google Maps having a look to the areas we were going to walk. I imagined, almost inadvertently, how could be the people we would cross, or the landscapes of the valleys we would trek. Looking at these maps, I was quite surprised and a bit disappointed because from the initial part of the route to about half of the way, the satellite pictures still don't have a great definition, given the number of people who follow this route every year. That is why it was very complicated to plot on a satellite map, the route we were going to do. So I was a bit frustrated...
Now that I'm back and I know the route well, I decided to create a map on Google Maps so that future travelers don't come with the same problem, or for those curious who would like to know which is the most typical route to the Everest base camp (Nepali side), having 2 weeks of vacation. I say specifically 2 weeks of vacation because if I would have had 3, my route would have changed a bit, so instead of going up and down by basically the same path (up by Pheriche and down by Dingboche), my return would have been done via Gokyo or rather the Gokyo Ri (5,360 m - 17,585 ft) from where the views are amazing, as in addition to the Nuptse (7,861 m - 25,791 ft) you can see four eight-thousands peaks: Everest (8,848 m - 29,029 ft), Lhotse (8,516 m - 27,940 ft), Makalu (8,462 m - 27,762 ft) and Cho Oyu (8,201 m - 26,906 ft).
Well, so this is the normal ascent route from Lukla to the Everest base camp:
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And I take the opportunity to display a picture taken from Kala Patthar, where you can see in front the Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse:
2 comments:
Do you have a this in a KML file for Google Earth?
Yes, you can probably take it from here:
http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=101028934332440553817.000460250ff2f2b767ac2&t=h&z=11
and click on the link where it says 'View in Google Earth'
Cheers
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